Lincoln Hills' replacements to be built in Outagamie County and Milwaukee

Lockups for teenage offenders would be built in Outagamie County and Milwaukee to replace the state's embattled juvenile prison, according to plans Gov. Tony Evers announced Tuesday.

The Outagamie County facility will be built northwest of Appleton in Hortonia, according to the governor's office. The second facility will be built at Teutonia Avenue and Mill Road in Milwaukee.

The pair of lockups will replace Lincoln Hills School for Boys and Copper Lake School for Girls, the juvenile prison complex north of Wausau that has been the subject of a criminal investigation for four years.

Legislators voted last year to close that facility and replace it with smaller, regional lockups that would keep young offenders closer to their homes.

Few knew about Evers' plan to build secure facilities in Hortonia and Milwaukee before he announced it late Tuesday morning — including town of Hortonia officials.

"We’re just really taken aback by the announcement," Town Clerk Lyn Neuenfeldt said. "We just heard about it literally when the governor was making the announcement, which to me seems really inappropriate or shocking."

Sen. Robert Cowles, R-Allouez, whose district includes the land near State 15 and U.S. 45 chosen for the lockup, learned the news from a Milwaukee Journal Sentinel story. And office staff for Rep. Michael Schraa, R-Oshkosh, found out when a USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin reporter called. Schraa co-sponsored a bill to close Lincoln Hills and sat on a committee under former Gov. Scott Walker to choose the lockup sites.

Neuenfeldt said a private consulting firm working on behalf of the state reached out to the town in November about the possibility of building a secure juvenile facility there; it was the committee's top choice outside Milwaukee.

The Town Board responded it had issues with zoning but didn't hear anything back until Tuesday's announcement, Neuenfeldt said.

Plus, board members do not want the facility in their quiet, rural town, Neuenfeldt said. She worries the new juvenile lockup would bring to Hortonia the problems that surrounded Lincoln Hills. They made this clear to the consultants in November.

And because Evers announced the Hortonia location as if a facility there were a done deal, it sets the town up for a conflict with the state, Neuenfeldt said.

"That puts us both in an extremely awkward position ... of having to say no to something when the horse is already out of the gate," she said.

Cowles said it's important Evers' administration consults the town, nearby New London and Outagamie County before following through with any plans.

"They need to go talk to the local people, tell them they're up to," Cowles said Tuesday afternoon, adding he planned to meet shortly with Department of Corrections Secretary-designee Kevin Carr to learn more about the administration's plan. "Surprises are not good."

Rep. David Steffen, R-Howard, has been working with Evers to replace the Green Bay Correctional Institution. He said the lack of communication with the town of Hortonia is unfortunate because legislators in both parties have supported Lincoln Hills' closure.

"Republicans and Democrats have agreed in concept as to the regional facility solution," Steffen said, but "the devil's always in the details."

Outagamie County Executive Tom Nelson said he learned of the Hortonia choice a few days ago, but a precise plan and timeline are unclear. He said Tuesday that it's a good opportunity to share the county's ideas about justice reform with the state.

"We really are statewide leaders," Nelson said. "This affords us an opportunity to showcase those initiatives and innovation and hopefully partner and collaborate with the state for the benefit of all."

The new Milwaukee and Hortonia lockups would be run by the state. Others would be run by counties, but locations for those facilities have not yet been made.

Evers has left open the possibility of building a third state-run lockup, but has not said where that would be.

The state is under a deadline to close Lincoln Hills by 2021, but the Democratic governor wants to delay the closure date. Legislators have said they want to keep a hard deadline but have been open to extending it by six to nine months.

"We are committed to getting kids out of Lincoln Hills and closer to home as soon as we safely and responsibly can," Evers said in a statement. "Today’s announcements show significant action towards our shared goal of ensuring kids get the education, programming and mental health treatment they need in supportive settings that are closer to their families and communities."

His plans to build facilities in Milwaukee and Hortonia will need approval from the Legislature's budget committee. He did not release full details of his plans, such as the exact address of the new facilities.

GOP state Sen. Van Wanggaard of Racine, who sat on a committee that reviewed locations for new juvenile correctional centers, said Evers' announcement was "unexpected but reflective of the decisions" made by that committee.

"I hope the governor does a better job of being proactive and inclusive to committee members and communities around the state as we work to close Lincoln Hill in 2021," Wanggaard said in a statement.

Evers made his announcement as he seeks an additional $194 million from the Republican-controlled Legislature to establish new teen lockups around the state and expand a mental health facility for young offenders.

In all, he wants to spend $274 million, up from $80 million that has already been approved.

Schraa said Evers' budget plan seems to provide for three state-run lockups. He thinks the first two facilities built should both be in the southern part of the state where the majority of juvenile offenders live. He is skeptical a third facility is necessary.

Evers' budget provides for $115 million for the three state-run facilities, up from the $25 million plan Schraa sponsored last year.

"He asked for way more than what he needed," Schraa said.

Schraa agreed more funding is needed to build the new county-run facilities but said plans to expand the Mendota Juvenile Treatment Center ring up to about $1 million per bed.

Also Tuesday, Evers announced he was appointing Democratic Rep. David Crowley of Milwaukee to a committee that will consider grants for counties that want to build juvenile lockups.

He also appointed to the committee Sharlen Moore of the group Youth Justice Milwaukee, which has advocated for immediately closing Lincoln Hills.

Contact Patrick Marley at patrick.marley@jrn.com. Follow him on Twitter at @patrickdmarley.